Understanding Climate Control of Fisheries Recruitment in the Eastern Bering Sea

Alaska's Bering Sea ecosystem is changing rapidly, and the people and animals living in this area must quickly adapt. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ecosystems and Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations program has been monitoring the Bering Sea ecosystem for more than 20 years with a multidisciplinary toolbox of biophysical moorings, ship-based operations, and satellite-tracked drifters. Physical and biological time-series data collected from a series of three-to-seven-year programs have supported foundational ecosystem science and provided great insight into how climate can influence fisheries recruitment. In this article, we highlight the major discoveries made during nearly two decades of observations in the Bering Sea.